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London: Parliament House (designs for). Unfinished design for a doorhead showing a decorated console supporting a stepped, decorated cornice. Below is foliage and a lion beside an attenuated urn.
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Reference number
Adam vol.7/195
Purpose
London: Parliament House (designs for). Unfinished design for a doorhead showing a decorated console supporting a stepped, decorated cornice. Below is foliage and a lion beside an attenuated urn.
Aspect
Elevation
Signed and dated
- Undated, probably 1762-63
Medium and dimensions
Pen, pencil
228 x 269
Hand
James Adam, Office of
Notes
This is a variation of part of the doorway shown in Adam vol.7/174, and is associated with both Robert Adam's The Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro (1764) and its adaptation to James Adam's Parliament House scheme of 1762/63. The decoration of the doorhead is similar to that noted as from the Temple of Aesculapius in Adam vol.7/174.
The door to the Temple of Aesculapius was engraved by Antonio Zucchi (1726-95) for The Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro, in pl.XLV, with a larger detail of the doorhead as pl.XLVI. The decoration shown in Adam vol.7/174 is considerably more delicate and refined than the original although Robert Adam observed that 'if we abstract from the Defect of the angular Modillions in this Door, some of the other Parts of it are very fine. It may indeed by objected with Reason, that it is too much ornamented for an Outside Door . . . the particular Enrichments of this Door are so finely executed, that they afforded the highest Satisfaction' (The Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro). Zucchi was working on these details with James Adam in Venice in the summer of 1760. The introduction of the royal arms suggests that this was part of James Adam's Parliament House scheme of 1762/3.
The door to the Temple of Aesculapius was engraved by Antonio Zucchi (1726-95) for The Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro, in pl.XLV, with a larger detail of the doorhead as pl.XLVI. The decoration shown in Adam vol.7/174 is considerably more delicate and refined than the original although Robert Adam observed that 'if we abstract from the Defect of the angular Modillions in this Door, some of the other Parts of it are very fine. It may indeed by objected with Reason, that it is too much ornamented for an Outside Door . . . the particular Enrichments of this Door are so finely executed, that they afforded the highest Satisfaction' (The Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro). Zucchi was working on these details with James Adam in Venice in the summer of 1760. The introduction of the royal arms suggests that this was part of James Adam's Parliament House scheme of 1762/3.
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk